Effect of strain and sulfur vacancies on the luminescence and valley polarization properties of CVD grown monolayer MoS2_2 films

Using temperature dependent photoluminescence (PL), polarization resolved PL and Raman spectroscopy, we investigate the effect of in situ vacuum annealing as well as the relaxation of strain on the luminescence and the valley polarization properties of large area strictly monolayer (1L)-MoS$_2$, grown on sapphire and SiO$_2$/Si substrates by a microcavity based chemical vapor deposition (CVD) technique. The study shows that the strain as well as the physisorption of air molecules at the sulfur vacancy ($V_S$) sites play key roles in governing the optical quality of CVD grown 1L-MoS$_2$. Removal of air molecules from the $V_S$ sites enhances the relative strength of the A-exciton/trion transition as compared to the broad luminescence (BL) band arising from those defects at low temperatures. It has also been found that such removal helps in improving the valley polarization property of the film. Relaxation of biaxial tensile strain, which has been achieved by post growth transferring of 1L-MoS$_2$ film from the sapphire to a SiO$_2$/Si substrate by a polystyrene assisted transfer process, is also found to be helpful to get back the high polarization character ($\sim$80%) of the valleys. The study further shows that the transfer process not only facilitates the removal of physisorbed air molecules from the $V_S$ sites but also puts in place a long lasting capping layer on MoS$_2$ that shields the film from reacting with air and hence enhances the relative yield of A-exciton/trion transition by suppressing the BL transition. The study thus creates an opportunity to use CVD grown large area 1L-MoS$_2$ for the development of optoelectronic as well as valleytronic devices for practical applications for the future

Small Language Models Fine-tuned to Coordinate Larger Language Models improve Complex Reasoning

Large Language Models (LLMs) prompted to generate chain-of-thought (CoT) exhibit impressive reasoning capabilities. Recent attempts at prompt decomposition toward solving complex, multi-step reasoning problems depend on the ability of the LLM to simultaneously decompose and solve the problem. A significant disadvantage is that foundational LLMs are typically not available for fine-tuning, making adaptation computationally prohibitive. We believe (and demonstrate) that problem decomposition and solution generation are distinct capabilites, better addressed in separate modules, than by one monolithic LLM. We introduce DaSLaM, which uses a decomposition generator to decompose complex problems into subproblems that require fewer reasoning steps. These subproblems are answered by a solver. We use a relatively small (13B parameters) LM as the decomposition generator, which we train using policy gradient optimization to interact with a solver LM (regarded as black-box) and guide it through subproblems, thereby rendering our method solver-agnostic. Evaluation on multiple different reasoning datasets reveal that with our method, a 175 billion parameter LM (text-davinci-003) can produce competitive or even better performance, compared to its orders-of-magnitude larger successor, GPT-4. Additionally, we show that DaSLaM is not limited by the solver's capabilities as a function of scale; e.g., solver LMs with diverse sizes give significant performance improvement with our solver-agnostic decomposition technique. Exhaustive ablation studies evince the superiority of our modular finetuning technique over exorbitantly large decomposer LLMs, based on prompting alone.Comment: EMNLP 202

Influence of Defects on the Valley Polarization Properties of Monolayer MoS2_{2} Grown by Chemical Vapor Deposition

Here, the underlying mechanisms behind valley de-polarization is investigated in chemical vapor deposited 1L-MoS$_{2}$. Temperature dependent polarization resolved photoluminescence spectroscopy was carried out on as-grown, transferred and capped samples. It has been found that the momentum scattering of the excitons due to the sulfur-vacancies attached with air-molecule defects has a strong influence on the valley de-polarization process. Our study reveals that at sufficiently low densities of such defects and temperatures, long range electron-hole exchange mediated intervalley transfer due to momentum scattering via Maialle-Silva-Sham (MSS) mechanism of excitons is indeed the most dominant spin-flip process as suggested by T. Yu et al. The rate of momentum scattering of the excitons due to these defects is found to be proportional to the cube root of the density of the defects. Intervalley transfer process of excitons involving $\Gamma$-valley also has significance in the valley de-polarization process specially when the layer has tensile strain or high density of $V_S$ defects as these perturbations reduce $K$ to $\Gamma$-energy separation. Band-structural calculations carried out within the density functional theory framework validate this finding. Experimental results further suggest that exchange interactions with the physisorbed air molecules can also result in the intervalley spin-flip scattering of the excitons, and this process gives an important contribution to valley depolarization, specially at the strong scattering regime

Globally, CYP1B1 mutations in primary congenital glaucoma are strongly structured by geographic and haplotype backgrounds

Purpose: To obtain a global perspective on the distribution and evolution of CYP1B1 mutations in primary congenital glaucoma (PCG) worldwide. Methods. Five intragenic single-nucleotide polymorphisms in CYP1B1-R48G, A119S, V432L, D449D, and N453S-were used to generate haplotype data from 138 Indian patients with PCG and 132 ethnically matched normal controls, which were then analyzed in conjunction with data from other populations. Maximum-likelihood estimates of haplotype frequencies were estimated from the genotype data. Subsets of patients and normal control subjects were also genotyped with respect to eight short tandem repeat (STR) markers around the CYP1B1 locus (D2S305, D2S165, D2S367, D2S2259, D2S391, D2S3337, D2S23678, and D2S286), to gain evolutionary insights. Results: Common mutations in CYP1B1 that are causal of PCG occurred on a uniform haplotype background among Indian patients, which is completely distinct from the modal haplotype background found among unaffected control subjects. Comparison of these data with data from other global regions reveals strong clustering of CYP1B1 mutations by geographic and haplotype backgrounds. The two distinct modal haplotypes found among Indian patients with PCG and control subjects are both ancient with ages of similar magnitudes, as indicated by large variances in the number of repeats at eight STR loci. Together with data from chimpanzee and normal control subjects from India and other global regions, it was possible to make a parsimonious reconstruction of the evolution of these haplotypes. Conclusions: The strong association of specific haplotypes with some predominant CYP1B1 mutations underlying PCG and the observed geographical clustering, probably due to founder effects, may be useful for predictive testing

Evaluation of the OPTC gene in primary open angle glaucoma: functional significance of a silent change

BACKGROUND: We investigated the molecular basis of primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG) using Opticin (OPTC) as a candidate gene on the basis of its expression in the trabecular meshwork cells involved in the disease pathogenesis. Two hundred POAG patients and 100 controls were enrolled in this study. The coding sequence of OPTC was amplified by PCR from genomic DNA of POAG patients, followed by SSCP, DHPLC and DNA sequencing. Subsequent bioinformatic analysis, site-directed mutagenesis, quantitative RT-PCR and western blot experiments were performed to address the functional significance of a 'silent' change in the OPTC coding region while screening for mutations in POAG patients. RESULTS: We detected two missense (p.Glu66Gly & p.Ile89Thr) and one silent change (p.Phe162Phe; c.602 C>T) that was present in 3 different patients but in none of the 100 controls screened. The mutant (c.602T) mRNA was predicted to have remarkably different secondary structure compared to the wild-type transcript by in silico approaches. Subsequent wet-lab experiments showed lower expression of the gene both at the mRNA and protein levels. CONCLUSION: Our study suggests OPTC as a candidate gene for POAG. Further, it highlights the importance of investigating the 'silent' variations for functional implication that might not be apparent from only in silico analysis

Mutation spectrum of the CYP1B1 gene in Indian primary congenital glaucoma patients

Purpose: The human Cytochrome P450 gene CYP1B1 has been implicated in primary congenital glaucoma worldwide. The aim of this study was to understand the role of CYP1B1 mutations in causing primary congenital glaucoma in Indian populations. Methods: The study included 64 new and unrelated cases of primary congenital glaucoma from different ethnic groups of India. Direct sequencing screened the coding and the promoter regions of CYP1B1. Results: Sixteen pathogenic mutations were observed in 24 cases, of which 7 were novel. These included two frameshift mutations leading to deletions of 23 bp (g.3905del23bp) and 2 bp (g.7900-7901delCG) in exons II and III, respectively. Four novel missense mutations viz. A115P, M132R, Q144P, S239R were noted in exon II, and one in exon III (G466D), whose residue is a part of the "signature sequence" (NH2-FXXGXXXCXG-COOH) and is present in all heme binding cytochromes. Overall, CYP1B1 was involved in 37.50% (24/64) cases and homozygosity of the mutant allele was seen in 29.68% (19/64) and compound heterozygosity in 3.12% (2/64) of the cases, respectively. The frequency of CYP1B1 mutations was comparatively lower than Saudi Arabian, Slovakian Gypsys, and Turkish populations, largely due to genetic heterogeneity and ethnic diversities in Indian populations. Genotype-phenotype correlation indicated variable prognosis that could be due to the type of mutation, leading to alteration of CYP1B1 protein. Conclusions: This study provides a mutation spectrum of CYP1B1 causing primary congenital glaucoma in Indian populations that has implications in devising molecular diagnostics for rapid screening